Açık ve uzaktan öğrenme süreçlerinde öğrencilerin sistemden ayrılma sebeplerinin incelenmesi

Student dropout remains a significant concern despite the growing corpus of literature on the subject. Through an in-depth examination of the lived experiences of those who have dropped out from distance education programs, this phenomenological study aims to reveal the factors that contribute to students' decision to leave. In this study, semi structured interviews were utilized to uncover the nuanced, personal, and complex factors and thematic data analysis technique was applied to analyze the data. The research group consists of 15 individuals who once enrolled in an open and distance education program but dropped out between the years 2019 and 2022. Based on the findings derived from participants' responses to the first interview question aiming to reveal the underlying reasons that contribute to participants' dropping out, most frequently addressed factors were assessment, course and study materials, life circumstances, enrollment policies and procedures, motivation and goal commitment, course difficulty, self-regulation, pandemic, tuition fee, other academic pursuits, trust and credibility, course design, course satisfaction, infrastructure and accessibility, communication channels and interaction and socialization. Participants' responses to the second interview question, which aims to bring the emotional outcomes of their decisions into light, revealed such emotional outcomes as indifference, sadness, relief, disappointment, being deceived, and awareness. Based on the findings, meticulously documented lived experiences of the participants were discussed by revisiting the literature, a set of recommendations were made and some implications for future studies were noted.